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The Global Jewish News SourceFri, 09 Dec 2016 19:52:28 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1Famed Holocaust documentarian making pro-Palestinian filmhttp://www.jta.org/2015/11/19/arts-entertainment/famed-holocaust-documentarian-making-pro-palestinian-film
http://www.jta.org/2015/11/19/arts-entertainment/famed-holocaust-documentarian-making-pro-palestinian-film#respondThu, 19 Nov 2015 17:47:47 +0000http://www.jta.org/?p=1096987“The title is going to be ‘Let My People Go,’ which means that the Israelis should let the Palestinians go,” said the award-winning director of “The Sorrow and the Pity,” Marcel Ophuls.]]>

Filmmaker Marcel Ophuls at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October 2015. (Tommy Lau)

MILL VALLEY, Calif. (JTA) — Documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophuls is perhaps best known for his 1969 Academy Award-nominated film “The Sorrow and the Pity,” which raised questions of French collaboration during the Nazi occupation, along with his monumental 1988 biopic “Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie,”which exploredthe actions of the notorious Nazi as well as the human condition.

Given his track record, news of the award-winning director’s next film may come as a surprise.

Ophuls —whose father, Max, was a prominent Jewish director, and who fled Nazi Europe as a child — announced last month that he will title his forthcoming film“Let My People Go.” Although the iconic phrase resonates deeply with anyone who has attended a Passover seder, Ophuls said he will use the familiar imperative to support the Palestinians.

“The title is going to be ‘Let My People Go,’ which means that the Israelis should let the Palestinians go,” Ophuls, 88, said at the 38th annual Mill Valley Film Festival, an increasingly prominent awards platform.

The statement garnered applause from the audience.

When this reporter asked specifically where Israel should let the Palestinians go, Ophuls offered just one word: “Anywhere.”

At the festival — where Ophuls received a tribute for his contributions to cinema — the filmmaker announced plans to film in Syria and Israel in the near future, eyeing a possible debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

“There are only 10 days of shooting left and a few months of editing, of course,” he said. “And if we can make the film, finish the film, it will probably go to Cannes next spring.”

The project gained media attention from a report in The New York Times, which noted its original working title, “Unpleasant Truths.” Late last year, Ophuls sought to raise 50,000 euros, then about $62,000. The film is a joint project with Eyal Sivan, an Israeli documentarian who left Israel for Paris in 1985.

Sivan told the Timesthey seek to answer the questions such as “Is Israel provoking anti-Semitism?” and “whether Islamophobia is the new anti-Semitism.”

A 12-minute clip of the work in progress, which is available on YouTube under its former title, opens with Ophuls failing to persuade the famed French director Jean-Luc Godard — who previously released a book and film on Jewish identity — to join him on a collaborative scouting trip to Israel. (According to the Times, the directors began discussing a collaboration on the topic more than 10 years ago. Whether Godard, a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, is also an anti-Semite is a question that has garnered media attention.)

Ophuls also interviews Michel Warschawski, described as an “anti-colonial activist”; Abraham Burg, a former speaker of the Israeli Knesset, and Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, whom he describes as the spiritual leader of the settlers. The clip includes footage of a rally of Israelis against Jews marrying Arabs. And at one point, Sivan says that in the territories, the water ratio is “one liter of water for the Palestinians to 10 liters for the Jews.”

In another scene, Ophuls travels on the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In a phone call, he describes the route with “barbed wires everywhere. A prison for Palestinians on one side. It’s apartheid, really.

“I’m going to tell you why Max Ophuls wasn’t a Zionist,” Ophuls says on camera of his famous father’s lack of support for the Jewish state. “Not really anti-Zionist but certainly not Zionist. Because he thought the Jews’ destiny in the 20th century was to be cosmopolites — against nationalism.”

Ophuls’ notable body of documentary work includes “A Sense of Loss”(1972), about the conflict in Northern Ireland; an examination of the Nuremberg Trials titled “The Memory of Justice” (1973-76); an investigation into the fall of communism in East Germany and its repercussions called “November Days”(1992), and a look at war correspondents titled “The Trouble We’ve Seen”(1994).

His 2013 film, “Ain’t Misbehavin’: A Marcel Ophuls Journey,” is a rambling exploration of his life and career. The documentary details how his family fled Nazi Germany for France in 1933, then in 1941, following the German invasion of France, fled to Los Angeles. (Ophul’s mother is the non-Jewish actress Hildegard Wall.)

At the Mill Valley Film Festival event, an audience member asked Ophuls during a question-and-answer session how he develops concepts for his films.

“Ideas come when they come,” he said. “My father, because he spoke German, called it ‘Einfallen.’ They start in heaven and then they may come down. … Some days you have no ideas at all, for weeks or more. They don’t want to come. And you’ve got to work for them. Some people are more creative than others. Talent is not given to everyone.”

Notably, Ophuls said he doesn’t write scripts.

“That, to me, is the essential difference between documentaries and movies and real movies,” he said. “I only script in the editing room when I have maybe 120 hours of rushes [raw footage]. And I work on those, and by and by, idea by idea, sometimes they’re good and sometimes they’re not so good, it all comes together.”

His “organic” style of filmmaking allows a “big story” to fill “a big space in time.” With no preconceived notions about how long a film should be, his run famously long. “The Sorrow and the Pity”is nearly 4 1/2 hours, as is “Hotel Terminus.”

Initially produced for television, “The Sorrow and the Pity” was notoriously banned from French TV, although it eventully aired in 1981. The film gained even more attention after director Woody Allen featured it twice in his Oscar-winning “Annie Hall.” In what became a classic scene, Allen’s character, Alvy Singer, invites Diane Keaton’s Annie to view the film. She responds, “I’m not in the mood to see a four-hour documentary on Nazis.”

At the film’s close, however, Alvy bumps into Annie as she takes a date to see the documentary. Alvy calls it “a personal triumph.”

Ophuls, in turn, briefly excerpts “Annie Hall” in “Ain’t Misbehavin‘,” and reads a laudatory letter from Allen that he shows in a close-up.

The same might be said for Ophuls’ upcoming film. Applying an ancient Exodus narrative to the Palestinian cause, and accusing Israel of apartheid, may cause Ophuls’ Jewish fans no choice but to let him go — at the box office.

Singer-songwriter Cathy Heller has carved a lucrative niche licensing her upbeat music to TV and commercials. (Elisabeth Caren)

(JTA) — You may have never heard of singer-songwriter Cathy Heller, but chances are you’ve heard her music.

At the moment, McDonald’s is featuring her songs in two commercials — one for frappes, the other for the $2.50 double cheeseburger-and-fries combo. They are the latest in a string of high-profile gigs for Heller, an active member of West Los Angeles’ Pico-Robertson Jewish community, one of the city’s epicenters of Jewish life. In addition to the decidedly unkosher fast food chain, Walmart has licensed Heller’s music for one of its summer commercials, and her songs have appeared in commercials for American Airlines, Hasbro, Lifetime, MTV, Nickelodeon, Special K, the Disney Channel and Disneyland.

Some Gen-Xers may scoff at the idea as “selling out,” but in a business that’s been in decline since the dawn of the Internet, it’s a concept that’s irrelevant today.

“Because the margins are so small on selling a record on iTunes, and people aren’t paying $12 for an album to get the single they want, you don’t make money selling albums any more or touring anymore unless you already have a following,” she tells JTA. “The reason you know of the artists Ingrid Michaelson, American Authors, Imagine Dragons and Snow Patrol is because they license their music.”

Licensing her heartfelt music to film, television and commercials forms the core of Heller’s strategy to define success in the music world on her own terms. You won’t find her hustling for a record deal or waiting around for single-digit paychecks from streaming services. Operating with a do-it-yourself model, Heller writes and publishes her own music under her own business, Catch the Moon Music — and, perhaps most important, she nets all the proceeds when she secures a licensing deal.

“I’m the only artist, as far as I know, who has pitched my own work and gotten this far,” she says.

It may be lucrative but her work, Heller says, is also a conscious effort to bring something positive into the world.

“This is why I write songs called ‘Let Your Colors Shine,’ which is all about how each of us has a spark and it’s so important to share it,” she says. “I write songs like ‘This Is It,’ which is all about knowing each moment is all we really have and living it to the fullest. I write songs called ‘Spread a Little Love’ , all about coming together and spreading the love along. All my songs aspire to [express] a message of hope and remind people how special they are and that they’re not alone.”

A native Floridan, Heller, 36, moved to Los Angeles 12 years ago as an aspiring singer-songwriter after spending two years in Israel studying Torah. That experience, which cemented her spiritual connection to Jewish tradition, never left her.

Heller’s Jewish identity and her spiritual practice, which includes observing Shabbat, provide the chorus to her work week.

“It keeps me grounded and I always know where my North Star is,” she says. “I don’t get caught up in the superficial part of the business, which allows me to really just enjoy making music. It reminds me of who I am and what I’m really here to do. It helps give me clarity and purpose, and it impacts every song I write and every interaction I have.”

The married mom sends her two girls, ages 2 and 3 1/2, to a Conservative synagogue preschool to help infuse them with their own sense of spirituality.

“I feel very connected to Hashem and I want so much for my kids to have that connection to God, to know the source of all life and wisdom, and to know the source of their soul,” she says. “I want them to know they carry an infinite spark and they have amazing potential and great responsibility to be a light.”

Being a “light”onto others is something she takes seriously.

“I love being able to use the contacts I’ve built to help other artists launch their careers,” says Heller, who conducts workshops (in person and via Skype) to assist other singer-songwriters in navigating the shifting music industry. She also represents other artists seeking to license their work.

Heller says she began singing as far back as she can remember, with the dream of one day landing her compositions in films and television. She studied piano and voice as a child and performed musical theater before graduating from Florida State University.

Early in her career, Heller received critical advice to maintain a “polite persistence,” and that’s something she estimates accounts for 90 percent of her working strategy.

“You can’t take rejection personally and must just keep going,” she says. “So much happens for the people who keep showing up — and it doesn’t hurt when your motives are really to spread a little goodness.”

Heller’s first licensing deal was with Kodak in 2007. Another big break came in 2009, when NBC licensed her single “Turn the Sunshine On” for a promotional campaign for its comedies, including “The Office.”

“That was pretty fantastic and gave me lots of exposure,” she says.

Over the years, Heller’s music has been part of the soundtrack for poignant and sweet moments on TV programs, including ABC Family’s “Pretty Little Liars” and “Switched at Birth,” and The WB’s “One Tree Hill.”

“Usually, fans find my music because they’ll hear a song in a show or in an ad and then they’ll come to find the rest of the songs on iTunes,” says Heller, who also performs at local venues around Los Angeles.

Looking forward, Heller aspires to continue writing, licensing and spreading her optimism to a wider audience.

“I want to inspire more and more people and touch more souls to know they have a deep, intrinsic goodness,” she says. “Songwriting and performing give me so much fulfillment. I feel so expressed and I get to lift other people, so it’s such a a win-win.”

]]>http://www.jta.org/2015/09/03/default/license-to-shill-a-jewish-singer-songwriter-finds-success-with-catchy-commercials/feed0In music and life, Neshama Carlebach following in father’s footstepshttp://www.jta.org/2013/10/11/arts-entertainment/soul-doctor-may-close-but-soul-daughter-continues
http://www.jta.org/2013/10/11/arts-entertainment/soul-doctor-may-close-but-soul-daughter-continues#commentsFri, 11 Oct 2013 14:25:46 +0000http://www.jta.org/?p=825763Neshama Carlebach, the daughter of the late rabbi and musician Shlomo Carlebeach, strives to break new artistic ground, but is encountering many of the same challenges her father once did.]]>

Neshama Carlebach attending the after party for the Broadway opening night of “Soul Doctor.”(Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

(JTA) — As the August premiere of the Broadway musical “Soul Doctor” drew to a close, the daughter of the show’s subject, the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, took to the stage.

Neshama Carlebach invited the cast and audience to join her in singing her father’s legendary hit, “Am Yisrael Chai,” which became widely recognized as an anthem for the Soviet Jewry movement. The refrain, “Od avinu chai,” translates as “Our father lives on” and is derived from the question Joseph asks his brothers in the book of Genesis.

Although “Soul Doctor” is slated to close on Sunday after 32 preview performances and 66 regular performances, there was no mistaking the significance of the lyrics.

“This was the culmination of 10 years of work,” Carlebach told JTA. “It was a moment of triumph for my father that he was on Broadway. But it was another step in the journey. I know there is more work to be done.”

The work Carlebach speaks of is the perpetual “fixing of the world,” or tikkun olam, the healing of broken hearts and rectification of injustices that her father, a famed Jewish troubadour and spiritual leader who died 19 years ago this month, emphasized throughout his career. His legacy continues to be celebrated by an ever-growing stream of Carlebach-inspired bands, in memorial events around the world and in yet another biography — Natan Ophir’s “Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach: Life, Mission, and Legacy.”

But as interest in her father continues to grow, Carlebach is battling obstacles not entirely unlike those that once dogged her father, from the endless pirating of his music to her marriage — which, like that of her parents, ended in divorce.

True to her roots, Carlebach’s work as a female performing artist is grounded in Jewish tradition. Yet she continually breaks new ground. Last year, she performed at an interfaith peace summit at Mt. Fuji, Japan and at the gates of Auschwitz on Yom Hashoah. She has recorded an album and performed widely with an African-American Baptist church choir. This weekend, she will headline the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism centennial in Baltimore with Josh Nelson, who produced her upcoming album, “Soul Daughter,” inspired by the Broadway show and scheduled for release before hannukah. The pair will also perform at the Union for Reform Judaism biennial in December.

In September, Carlebach joined with Storahtelling theater troupe founder Amichai Lau-Lavie to help lead High Holidays services in New York through Lau-Lavie’s new project, Lab/Shul.

“The fact that she is bringing her own creations woven with her father’s legacy is exactly why she is the perfect person to be with us, in what we are co-creating — an infusion of the ‘inherited ancient’ and the ‘radically new,’” says Lau-Lavie.

In 1994, the year her father suffered a fatal heart attack on an airplane, Neshama, then a teenager, joined him on stage for the first time during what became his last tour. Together, they broke the taboo of kol isha, the Orthodox prohibition of women singing before men.

With her father’s passing, Neshama immediately stepped in as a solo act, fulfilling his existing bookings. She has performed ever since, touring widely and releasing eight albums.

“If I had been the first Orthodox woman singing in the 1950s, I may not have gone anywhere,” she says. “I sense that there is a new opening for women. We are not done with our revolution.”

Breaking the Orthodox sound barrier isn’t the only path Carlebach is trailblazing. Together with her younger sister, Nedara “Dari” Carlebach, a married mother of two who resides in Israel largely out of the public eye, they are gathering their father’s intellectual property into a comprehensive archive. Under the auspices of the Jerusalem-based Carlebach Legacy Trust, the sisters have amassed photographs, audio and video recordings, and spiritual teachings. In 2012, in conjunction with Urim Publications, the trust released the first of several volumes of their father’s biblical commentary, “Evan Shlomo: The Torah Commentary of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach,” edited by Shlomo Katz.

“The full image of our father is still hidden to most people,” Dari told JTA. “It’s even hard for us to grasp how much he brought to the world.”

A mother of two, Neshama’s oldest son, Rafael, 6, is a drummer who has apparently inherited his grandfather’s musicality. Rafael plays percussion on the “Soul Daughter” recording of “The Song of Shabbos,” which Shlomo composed at the funeral of his father, addressing the late Rabbi Naftali Carlebach beyond the grave.

“My father said, ‘Because everything was lost in the war, you didn’t leave me riches, diamonds or real estate. You left me Shabbos.’ On the spot, this song came to him,” Neshama Carlebach said. “And now, I sing for my father. The circle feels complete to have my son perform on that song.”

The track is one of 30 featured in “Soul Doctor.” Originally conceived as a one-woman show in which Carlebach sang and shared her father’s stories, it evolved over time into a musical.

The show is built around Shlomo’s friendship with gospel and jazz legend Nina Simone, a tradition of cross-cultural collaboration Neshama carries forward with The Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir on her seventh album, “Higher & Higher.”

At the 2011 Grammy Awards, the album was honored as a sixth-time entrant, an early form of recognition in the process toward becoming an official nominee. But the record didn’t yield sales on par with her previous collections, which have sold more than 1 million copies combined.

Carlebach attributes the response to interreligious fear, which her father also endured. “The back-up singers on his first album were from the churches my father loved to visit in New York City, but nobody spoke about it,” Carlebach says.

In contrast, Carlebach has been increasingly public about her ongoing interfaith collaboration with the choir. At her invitation, the choir’s Reverend Roger Hambrick participated in Lab/Shul’s Yom Kippur afternoon services.

“It was awesome. He sang solo and with her and it was very moving,” Lau-Lavie says. “They got the crowd of 1,000 on their feet just before Neila. There were many tears.”

When Carlebach looks at her mission in the aftermath of her father’s, their style is one and the same.

“We are trying new things and breaking barriers,” Carlebach said. “That is definitely who he was and the kind of person I want to be.”

(Lisa Alcalay Klug is the author of “Hot Mamalah” and “Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe.”)

NEW YORK (JTA) — With the creation of David’s Slingshot Hoppy Summer Lager, beer maker Jeremy Cowan is evoking the image of the legendary battle between David and Goliath — a match-up that’s also apt for Cowan himself.

Though still a small player in the world of craft beers, Cowan is catapulting himself onto a much larger field.

After years in which his company, Shmaltz Brewing, paid others to produce its He’Brew beers, Cowan is preparing to open his own brewing facility in suburban Albany, N.Y.

The Clifton Park facility, which will open July 7, includes a 1,700-square-foot tasting room, custom-made brew tanks and a 120 bottle-per-minute Italian packaging line.

On May 13, local officials and community leaders participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Now the only thing left to do is wait for the hops to brew.

Albany, N.Y., officials joining the brewers of Shmaltz Brewing for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the company’s new facility in suburban Clifton Park, May 13, 2013. (Shmaltz Brewing)

It’s certainly been “shofar so good” for the beer maker, who has relied on Jewish puns and assorted kitsch to move 3 million bottles in 2012 alone. Those 125,000 cases — Cowan’s largest run yet — have grossed $3.9 million, a 42 percent increase over 2011. Cowan’s libations are now sold by 4,000 retail specialty shops in more than 30 states.

Cowan recognizes that members of the tribe don’t typically drink as much as other barflies. So if it’s not Jewish consumers lugging home those distinctive six packs, or throwing one back at the legions of bars where He’Brew and its sister label Coney Island Lagers are sold, just who is consuming his booze?

“You don’t have to be Irish to drink Guinness. You don’t have to be Belgian to drink Chimay. And you don’t have to be Jewish to drink great Jewish beer,” Cowan says. “If the beer tastes great and the shtick is funny, then why wouldn’t anybody like it?”

Though Jews carry a reputation as lightweight drinkers, Jewish brewers have a storied history in the United States. One of the earliest Jewish-owned breweries in the country, Rheingold Beer, was founded in 1850 by Samuel Liebmann and became quite popular.

Today, beer lovers looking for Jewish-inspired alternatives to He’Brew can choose from Maccabee, marketed in the United States by Israel’s Tempo Beer Industries; Lompoc Brewing’s 8 Malty Nights, a chocolate rye porter; and the microbrews of New York-based Lost Tribes, which incorporates exotic ingredients from the Middle East.

But Shmaltz has embraced its Jewish side with a gusto unmatched by any of the others. Its newest addition, David’s Slingshot Hoppy Lager, joins a host of quirky labels including Funky Jewbilation, Hop Manna, Genesis Dry Hopped Session Ale, Messiah Nut Brown Ale and Rejewvenator.

Cowan, a Stanford University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in English, devises the shtick, as well as the written product descriptions and marketing concepts. His art director, Nat Polacheck, interprets the concepts into the company’s signature style.

The new brewery is a far cry from the brand’s humble beginnings in 1996, when Cowan started selling cases from his grandmother’s Volvo — a story he shares in his memoir, “Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah: How It Took 13 Years, Extreme Jewish Brewing, and Circus Sideshow Freaks to Make Shmaltz Brewing Company an International Success.”

The company’s success owes much to the burgeoning appeal of the wider craft beer industry. Sales of craft brew increased to $10.2 billion in 2012, up from $8.7 billion in 2011. The ranks of small breweries are larger than they’ve been at any time since before Prohibition.

“Since the 1970s, the growth has been small but linear,” says Cowan, who spearheaded the creation of the non-profit New York City Brewers Guild in 2012 and currently serves as its president. “In the last four or five years, there have been more breweries opening every year than ever before.”

According to the Brewers Association, small craft brewers produce fewer than 6 million barrels of beer annually. Like Shmaltz, these brewers typically take distinct, individualistic approaches to connecting with their clients. They also use both traditional and non-traditional ingredients, like the fruit juice found in He’Brew’s Origin Pomegranate Ale.

With his new facility, Cowan is now brewing 50-barrel batches every two to three weeks, with an annual capacity of 20,000 barrels.

“It’s incredibly exciting, incredibly gratifying to be part of an industry that is going through positive change right now,” Cowan says.

]]>http://www.jta.org/2013/06/10/life-religion/heads-up-jewish-brewer-thriving-amid-craft-beer-boom/feed1Shlomo Carlebach’s life comes to the stage in ‘Soul Doctor’http://www.jta.org/2012/08/14/arts-entertainment/shlomo-carlebachs-life-comes-to-the-stage-in-soul-doctor
http://www.jta.org/2012/08/14/arts-entertainment/shlomo-carlebachs-life-comes-to-the-stage-in-soul-doctor#respondTue, 14 Aug 2012 22:33:00 +0000http://jta-live.alley.ws/2012/08/14/default/shlomo-carlebachs-life-comes-to-the-stage-in-soul-doctorA play about Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s “lonely and conflicted” life as an Orthodox rabbi, rock star and spiritual shepherd could soon be heading to Broadway.]]>

Eric Anderson and Julie Osborne as Shlomo Carlebach and his wife, from the off-Broadway play “Soul Doctor.” (Carol Rosegg)

Eric Anderson portrays Shlomo Carlebach in the new off-Broadway musical “Soul Doctor” about the rabbi’s life. (Carol Rosegg)

The company of the off-Broadway musical “Soul Doctor,” about the life of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. (Carol Rosegg)

NEW YORK (JTA) — As he researched the complex life of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach for a new musical, playwright Daniel Wise found a surprisingly candid source.

Neshama Carlebach, a successful recording artist and popular performer of her father’s compositions, openly revealed his many struggles as “a lonely and conflicted” Orthodox rabbi — both rock star and spiritual shepherd.

“When someone collaborates on a show and at the same time is the daughter of the subject matter, and she is serving of the show rather than her own perspective, it helps make the show what it is,” Wise says. “It was also very brave.”

As Neshama explains, her father’s message is that everyone “can surpass their own walls. Some people say he was an angel. He was a person. But he was a strong person. He made beautiful choices and that should be a inspiration for the world.”

Some of Carlebach’s followers aren’t so pleased with the candor about his exploration of the 1960s counterculture and his willingness to go beyond strict Orthodox boundaries.

“Reb Shlomo was a soul on fire who was a rebbe to thousands,” says Shy Yellin, president of the Carlebach Shul on New York City’s Upper West Side. “He was a tzaddik rooted in the love of God and His Torah and whose purpose, like other great rebbes, was to connect us to ‘Hashem yisborech’ in the deepest way. Because he was human, with all the challenges one faces, Shlomo could relate to his flock and we to him. If he made any mistakes, they were long ago expiated. He was beloved by all.”

During his lifetime and perhaps even more since his death in 1994, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach — known widely as Reb Shlomo or simply Shlomo — is credited with reinvigorating Jewish life with uplifting song and spiritual teachings. His fascinating trajectory is the basis of a Broadway-bound show, “Soul Doctor: The Journey of a Rock Star Rabbi,” the first new Jewish hit musical in decades.

Neshama shares an official "creative credit for additional material" for the show, which is carried by more than 30 Carlebach melodies, often with new lyrics by David Schechter. “Soul Doctor” sold out in test runs in Florida and New Orleans, and opened to a limited engagement July 24-Aug. 19 at the New York Theatre Workshop. Again, the show rapidly sold out.

Producers are negotiating with a New York theater for an open-ended run.

As a cultural phenomenon in the 1960s music scene, Carlebach’s songs grew wildly popular. He performed on stage with Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Garcia, Pete Seeger, the Grateful Dead and Nina Simone, among others. He played venues from Carnegie Hall to hippie coffeehouses, prisons to ashrams. He even performed spontaneous midnight concerts under New York City’s West Side Highway for the local homeless, whom he often knew by name.

Carlebach died suddenly when his heart failed on airplane at LaGuardia Airport in New York. His annual yahrzeit triggers memorial concerts around the world. In a category all his own, his music now captivates Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, gay and lesbian, Orthodox and Chasidic communities.

Cross-over Jewish reggae sensation Matisyahu coined himself a “Bob Marley-Shlomo Carlebach fusion.” Even Pope John Paul II used Carlebach’s composition “Brothers and Friends” to open his last Mass at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

“Soul Doctor” reveals how Carlebach’s music and heart-centered teachings of “boundless love and joy” touched disillusioned hippies and dropouts, says Wise, who also directs the show.

The musical riffs on the successful formula of “Rent,” which Wise took on tour around the world. Both employ actors playing multiple roles and doubling as stage hands, gracefully transforming sets through scenes.

“Soul Doctor” travels from contemporary Vienna back to Carlebach’s childhood there under Nazi occupation, from a New York home and a dynamic musical beit midrash to the psychedelic House of Love and Prayer in 1960s San Francisco and more, in the multiple loops of Carlebach’s explorations of Jerusalem. Caracas. Nepal. And beyond.

As his newly published commentary on Genesis reveals, Carlebach also was an innovative Torah scholar. As a Chasidic figure and composer of niggunim — wordless, expressive tunes infused with spirituality — Carlebach bridges Old World and new, pre-war Orthodoxy and the post-war establishment he realized wasn’t reaching America’s rapidly assimilating Jews.

Despite its rabbi protagonist, “Soul Doctor” attracts diverse audiences because “It’s about how we are spiritually all the same,” says veteran Broadway composer and orchestrator Steve Margoshes, who wove together the score for “Soul Doctor” and previous Broadway smashes such as Elton John’s “Aida,” “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” and “The Who’s Tommy.”

In the 1950s, the thirtysomething Orthodox rabbi searches American counterculture and becomes intimate friends with Simone, a then-unknown jazz singer who introduced him to gospel music and R&B.

Carlebach suddenly finds himself “torn between his deep traditional roots and his dream to create a Jewish revival through his joyous and soulful melodies,” Margoshes explains. “He wakes up one day and decides the Jewish experience is bankrupt and he is going to reinvigorate it, no matter the personal cost.”

Their unusual connection — Simone later became the musical voice of the civil rights movement — helped Shlomo shape contemporary Jewish music and reinvigorate the American Jewish experience in the aftermath of the Holocaust, Wise says.

With composite characters and scenes, “Soul Doctor” is not a strictly factual presentation of Carlebach’s life. Rather than pure hagiography, it is a gripping exploration of the many challenges and controversies encountered by Carlebach.

“It is more the idea of Shlomo than what historically happened,” says Rabbi Naftali Citrin of the Carlebach Shul and Carlebach’s grand-nephew. “It’s a version of Shlomo’s life that can’t possibly contain everything.”

“Soul Doctor” reflects the humanity of this larger-than-life personality leaving an Orthodox dynasty to become Chasidic while attempting to reach the young and unplugged through conventional rabbinic teachings. The methods prove ineffective, so Carlebach struggles again to break out of the mold of previous Orthodox leaders and “become Shlomo,” the recording star, performer, spiritual minstrel and friend still both treasured and criticized.

One topic the show does not directly touch on are allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior made by some women against Carlebach after his death. Writing in an email to JTA, Wise says he would have tackled the issue, but “after over 100 interviews with credible individuals and researching dozens of credible documents and published articles, there was nothing I could find to support such allegations.”

“What was consistent from the research is that Shlomo was known for his powerful charisma and boundless love. He openly used physical touch and passionate language to help comfort and heal. He did this indiscriminately,” Wise adds. “There were many women to whom Shlomo gave love and affection. Some wanted a more intimate and romantic relationship and then later resented that he did not. While others went on to adapt an ultra-Orthodox Jewish life and have a difficult time reconciling Shlomo as a rabbi who is publicly displays physical affection. We have included this in ‘Soul Doctor’ as a central conflict in the story.”

In the show, Carlebach grapples with questions of modernity and how to heal young broken souls who expect a hug and won’t dance with a mechitzah.

“Soul Doctor” doesn’t shy away from Carlebach’s struggling with his upbringing’s Orthodox restrictions against even casual physical contact with women and intense condemnation from the establishment and his own father. Audiences watch him find love, attempt to balance family with touring, and ultimately encounter a devastating divorce when his wife takes their children — Neshama and her sister, Nedara (now a married mother of two living in Israel) — to Toronto.

Today, the sisters honor their father’s rich contributions to Jewish tradition through the Carlebach Legacy Trust, which collects his teachings, compositions, photographs and bootleg recordings. Neshama, also a mother of two, is working on her ninth album celebrating her father’s music, despite Orthodoxy’s concerns of kol isha, or halachic rulings regarding men hearing women sing. She also is trailblazing interfaith concerts with the Rev. Roger Hambrick and members of the Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir of the Bronx. Their album, “Higher and Higher,” was a sixth-time Grammy entrant last year.

“There is work to be done,” Neshama says, “and not everyone is down for the work.”

(This is Lisa Alcalay Klug’s third article in a JTA series about Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s legacy. Klug is the author of two humor books, "Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe," a National Jewish Book Award finalist, and "Hot Mamalah: The Ultimate Guide for Every Woman of the Tribe," a celebration of Jewish women debuting in October.)

]]>http://www.jta.org/2012/08/14/arts-entertainment/shlomo-carlebachs-life-comes-to-the-stage-in-soul-doctor/feed0With a Broadway show and new CDs, Shlomo Carlebach’s tunes resound worldwidehttp://www.jta.org/2012/03/07/arts-entertainment/with-a-broadway-show-and-new-cds-shlomo-carlebachs-tunes-resound-worldwide
http://www.jta.org/2012/03/07/arts-entertainment/with-a-broadway-show-and-new-cds-shlomo-carlebachs-tunes-resound-worldwide#respondWed, 07 Mar 2012 21:06:00 +0000http://jta-live.alley.ws/2012/03/07/default/with-a-broadway-show-and-new-cds-shlomo-carlebachs-tunes-resound-worldwideThe growing ranks of Carlebach minyanim are a part of a surge of recent interest in the late singer-spiritualist Shlomo Carlebach, including a new book, Broadway show and CDs by daughter Neshama Carlebach.]]>

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach during a visit to the Kotel in Jerusalem, early 1990s. (Shlomo Carlebach Legacy Trust)

BERKELEY, Calif. (JTA) — When David and Batsheva Miller left Israel for California in 1994, they sorely missed singer-spiritualist Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and the moshav, or Israeli communal settlement, founded by Carlebach.

Nothing, even in Berkeley, compared to Shabbat on the moshav, Meor Modiin. So they created gatherings at their home, enlivening them with Carlebach melodies — what Miller calls “nusach Shlomo.”

“It was a landing pad for people coming back from Israel, including us, who were in shock at the wilderness we encountered,” Miller said. “Equally important, it was a blastoff for many people powering up to go to Israel.”

Fast forward to last November, when the Millers and friends launched the Mevorach Minyan of Berkeley, an independent, monthly Shabbat morning service at a rented hall that commemorates the blessing of the new moon.

It is one of the latest Carlebach minyans around the globe. The services, which use Carlebach melodies, range from Crown Heights in New York’s Brooklyn borough to Jerusaelm, and take place both in independent minyans and established synagogues.

“If you wanted to count them all, you couldn’t,” said Rabbi Naftali Citron, the spiritual leader of New York’s Carlebach Shul.

The growing ranks of minyanim are a part of a surge of recent interest in Carlebach, who was Citron’s late great-uncle. Urim Publications and the Carlebach Legacy Trust recently released “Evan Shlomo, The Torah Commentary of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach: Genesis, Part I,” authored by Carlebach and edited by Rabbi Shlomo Katz.

After sellout runs in South Florida and New Orleans, the musical “Soul Doctor: The Journey of a Rock Star Rabbi,” written and directed by Daniel Wise, is poised to open on Broadway this fall. Since Carlebach’s passing in 1994, his eldest daughter, Neshama, has toured widely, recording eight albums. Her latest is a children’s collection for the PJ Library, which delivers Jewish books for free to 65,000 families nationwide. Neshama’s CD, “Higher & Higher,” in which she performs her father’s music with the Rev. Roger Hambrick and members of the Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir, was a Grammy entrant last year.

Countless other popular bands and individuals perform Carlebach’s music to an ever-expanding international fan base. They include Moshav, Soulfarm, Chaim Dovid, Benyamin Steinberg and Rabbi Katz.

But perhaps most notable is the extent to which Carlebach’s melodies have permeated synagogue services across the world.

“I’m always amazed by how much Shlomo lives and how much his music affected his time and our time,” said Ari Goldman, a journalism professor at Columbia University who wrote Carlebach’s obituary for The New York Times. “It is very much ingrained in our liturgical life, our celebratory life and our musical life.”

The Millers’ experience of longing for Carlebach tunes is a common impetus to launch a minyan, according to Citron. “Once you get used to this kind of davening, you can never go back,” he said.

Carlebach tunes have spread to all types of shuls – Orthodox, Renewal, Reform, Reconstructionist, gay, Conservative and Chabad. But Carlebach minyanim vary widely. Some groups pray in private homes once a month. Others meet in synagogues, as a supplement or alternative to traditional prayers. One popular Carlebach minyan in Jerusalem is run out of a bomb shelter in the neighborhood of Nachlaot.

The most notable characteristics of a Carlebach service are the melodies, pacing and degree to which congregants participate. Some minyanim also adopt a neo-Chasidic approach, channeling Carlebach and the Chasidic masters in teachings and sermons.

When Orthodox Congregation Ramath Orah in New York introduced a Carlebach Kabbalat Shabbat a few years after Carlebach’s passing, it “completely revived Friday-night davening,” said Goldman, a longtime member. It draws not just Orthodox Jews from the neighborhood but students and faculty from the nearby Columbia University and the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary.

In Los Angeles, a Carlebach minyan began 17 years ago when friends celebrated the Shabbat before the wedding of co-founders Stuie and Enny Wax. After years of meeting in spare rooms at local synagogues, the Happy Minyan now draws 100 to 150 people to services at The Karate Academy of Pico-Robertson.

Organizers transform the dojo into a sanctuary by removing floor mats and covering wall-to-wall mirrors with white velveteen. They cart in a podium, an ark, a mechitzah to separate men and women, prayer books, prayer shawls, chairs and decorations. They also offer child care and catered kiddush lunches. The community-led effort has no formal membership, rabbi or office staff.

Prayers at the Happy Minyan are infused with ecstatic singing and dancing on both sides of the mechitzah, niggunim — wordless melodies — and impromptu percussion on a wooden podium. Cantor Yehuda Solomon, lead singer of the rock-folk band Moshav, learned the melodies firsthand; Carlebach was his next door neighbor at Meor Modiim.

“This type of davening demands that you put your whole self into it,” said David Sacks, a Happy Minyan founding member who grew up across the street from the Carlebach Shul in Manhattan. “It adds another dimension where you can’t just say it, you’ve got to pray it.”

“My father was unlimited and he was more powerful than anyone understood,” she said.

Her younger sister, Nedara (Dari) Carlebach, a married mother of two living in Zichron Yaakov, Israel, says Carlebach music can be characterized by a unique capacity to unify, just like him.

“My father would start a concert with a roomful of strangers and within one song, you could feel the electricity in the air,” she said. “In videos, you see the melting-down of walls and by the end, everyone is singing and dancing, holding hands. It was like heaven came down, the ceiling opened and the angels were in the room dancing with us.”

(Lisa Alcalay Klug is the author of “Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe,” and the forthcoming “Hot Mamalah: The Ultimate Guide for Every Woman of the Tribe.”)

The Moshav band performs original world music, folk and rock in Hebrew and English, as well as â€œShlomo tunesâ€ of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. (Courtesy Moshav Band)

The folk-pop duo Wellspring features the Modern Orthodox performer Dov Rosenblatt and his non-Orthodox band mate Talia Osteen. (Courtesy The Wellspring)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — With his yarmulke, ritual fringes and lyrics occasionally borrowed from ancient texts, Grammy-nominated reggae star Matisyahu may be the most publicly Jewish performer in the mainstream music scene. But he’s not the only one.

Growing ranks of Jewishly committed performers are finding success on the national stage. Located on both coasts, these independent artists share more with Matisyahu than keeping the Sabbath. They, too, are attracting audiences with compositions informed by their spiritual lives: building connection, meaning and hope.

“The fuel that keeps us going is the feedback we get all the time that says, ‘Your music inspires me,’ " says Yehuda Solomon, who with his band Moshav has opened repeatedly for Matisyahu. “People tell us all the time, ‘I don’t listen to Jewish music, but you guys break all the stereotypes.’ ”

Solomon is the chazan, or cantor, for the Orthodox Happy Minyan in Los Angeles, dedicated to the lively, liturgical compositions of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. As Moshav’s lead vocalist, Solomon performs original world music, folk and rock in Hebrew and English, as well as “Shlomo tunes.”

For mainstream musicians hoping to make it big, Friday-night gigs help build successful careers. Without that option, licensing material and composing produce vital income. Some artists moonlight behind the scenes, which led to a Grammy Award for guitarist C Lanzbom of Pomona, N.Y.

Jewish artists P!nk and Barbra Streisand are among the nominees at this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony, which is slated for Feb. 12.

Although Lanzbom loves performing, he won the Grammy last year for mixing — for Pete Seeger and the Rivertown Kids’ best children’s musical album, “Tomorrow’s Children.”

Lanzbom, the son of Holocaust survivors, began his foray into music at age 7. Like Solomon, he was heavily influenced by Carlebach.

Although Carlebach was never as mainstream as Matisyahu, his iconic singing career spanned more than 40 years. Constantly touring, Carlebach performed at Carnegie Hall, the Berkeley Folk Festival and a range of international venues, from coffeehouses to synagogue basements. It was Carlebach who paid for Lanzbom’s first flight to Israel and introduced him to meaningful religious practice.

When Carlebach died in 1994 from a heart attack aboard an airplane, Lanzbom dedicated his first solo album to him, covering his songs. The album, “Beyond This World,” propelled Lanzbom into the Jewish market.

“It might look like I chose to limit myself," he says, "but it also gave me an identity.”

Lanzbom works with some household names, recently mixing a Seeger track featuring Bruce Springsteen. But he is best known to Jewish audiences as part of the rock-folk band Soulfarm, which he co-founded with Solomon’s brother, Noah, a gifted vocalist and mandolin player. Together they record original compositions, Carlebach songs and Breslov Chasidic tunes.

The Solomons grew up in Israel next door to Carlebach on the moshav Mevo Modi’im. The religious, musical village Carlebach founded in 1976 has spawned numerous bands, including Moshav, which performs worldwide on Jewish and mainstream stages. Its next album, “Light the Way,” debuts this spring.

Even when the music of these indie artists boasts appeal universally, the spiritual underpinnings often resonate as uniquely Jewish. Perhaps the most extreme example is the Matisyahu hit "One Day," which speaks of a messianic era. NBC aired the song in promos for its Winter Olympics coverage. Highlights from his forthcoming album recently performed in San Francisco suggest more inspirational material ahead.

The same applies to singer and guitarist Dov Rosenblatt, who with Talia Osteen, his non-Orthodox bandmate in The Wellspring folk-pop duo, has opened for headline rockers Pete Yorn and Ben Kweller. Yorn and Kweller do not keep Shabbat, but they delayed Saturday night shows to accommodate Rosenblatt, who grew up Modern Orthodox, attended Yeshiva University and recorded three albums with his previous rock band, Blue Fringe — an allusion to ritual fringes.

After marrying into a Lubavitch family in Los Angeles, where he has since relocated, Rosenblatt jokes that he is now “Modern Lubavodox.” He has co-written pop songs with Didi Benami (“American Idol” finalist), Taylor Mathews (“America’s Got Talent” finalist) and Mikal Blue (producer for Colbie Caillat and Five For Fighting).

But it’s licensing that generates anywhere from one to a few hundred thousand dollars in fees per song. His compositions, co-written with Lanzbom or Osteen, have appeared on MTV’s “The Real World,” “The Kardashians” and “Cougar Town.” When Fox featured The Wellspring’s cover of Big Star’s “Ballad of El Goodo” on “House M.D.,” a subsequent tweet from celebrity Olivia Wilde triggered massive interest in new licensing deals.

Rosenblatt’s L.A. colleagues, Yael Meyer and Cathy Heller, each have a long list of licensing credits, including “Beautiful People,” which they co-wrote. ABC aired it in network promos. Just as Matisyahu’s gold single “King Without a Crown” resembles a contemporary psalm, their songs, too, often are spiritual meditations.

When Heller learned that Arab terrorists had murdered five members of the Fogel family in the Itamar massacre in March 2011, she felt helpless and overwhelmed.

“I realized the only thing I have control over is my own happiness, so that’s what I need to get busy working on,” she says.

The result is her ukulele-driven pop song “Gonna Be Happy,” a call to “Turn your inside out. Let it shine.” The song will air on the CW’s March 28 series finale of “One Tree Hill.”

Meyer, whose compositions “write themselves,” watched her song “Shed Their Fear” emerge as a prayer: “Grant me strength to dissipate the dark that haunts and pierces deeply like a spear.” ABC broadcast it in prime time on “Private Practice.”

For Meyer and Heller, who attend Orthodox synagogues, performing for mixed audiences of men and women once may have raised concerns over kol isha, the religious restriction on hearing a women’s voice.

That’s what happened to Carlebach’s daughter. As a teenager, Neshama Carlebach performed widely on her father’s last tour. He would announce that she was heading on stage to sing one song, “B’Shem Hashem” ["In God’s Name"]. “He would say if anyone has a problem with that, go out for five minutes and then come back," she recalls.

After Carlebach’s death, Neshama continued his tour. At times she has encountered intense condemnation from the same audiences attending her concerts and buying her eight albums. Her father’s mission, to “heal, uplift and transform the world,” has profoundly impacted Neshama, who identifies as Modern Orthodox.

“My response to kol isha was so passionate because I believe I was born to this man to continue the work he began that is so needed in this world,” she says.

Her perspective on kol isha was echoed recently by Orthodox Rabbi Dov Linzer, dean of the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in New York.

“As the Talmud plainly puts it,” Linzer wrote in a New York Times opinion piece, “the responsibility is on a man, not a woman.”

These days, Neshama anticipates performing in “Soul Doctor,” the Broadway-bound, full-length musical she co-created that celebrates her father’s life. She also is touring solo and performing her father’s compositions together with a charismatic Baptist gospel choir on global stages. Their album, "Higher and Higher," was a sixth-time entrant in the 2011 Grammy Awards.

She says the ongoing criticism won’t stop her.

“I put interfaith and kol isha in the same category: ‘defined by fear,’ ” Neshama says. “I will walk where I walk and people will say what they say. I pray that they find their own healing.”

]]>http://www.jta.org/2012/02/08/arts-entertainment/for-traditional-musicians-alternatives-to-the-friday-night-concert-abound/feed0Jewish bard featured in documentary filmhttp://www.jta.org/2005/04/06/life-religion/features/jewish-bard-featured-in-documentary-film
http://www.jta.org/2005/04/06/life-religion/features/jewish-bard-featured-in-documentary-film#respondWed, 06 Apr 2005 13:00:01 +0000http://jta-live.alley.ws/2005/04/06/default/jewish-bard-featured-in-documentary-filmA new documentary called “Journey of the Spirit” tells the life story of Debbie Friedman, whose music is heard throughout Reform movement temples.]]>

Singer Debbie Friedman. (Michael Fox Photography )

BERKELEY, Calif., April 6 (JTA)  Debbie Friedman began singing while she was still in diapers. By the time she became a songleader in the 1970s at Reform movement summer camps, she was already on her way to becoming hugely popular. Friedman’s rousing, sing-along style quickly caught on, slowly turning her into a household name. Now in her early 50s, Friedman has had an illustrious career: She has recorded 19 albums over 30 years and appeared at Carnegie Hall three times. And now there’s a movie about her. The documentary “Journey of the Spirit” is being shown throughout the United States and Canada at synagogues, special screenings and Jewish film festivals. Friedman is still hard at work, with a list of albums on her to-do list and upcoming performances listed online at DebbieFriedman.com. Her distributor also markets her songbooks, hats and even Hallmark cards featuring lyrics from her songs. Few Jewish performer have sold as many albums as Friedman. “If I were to add up all the sales of Jewish musicians, Debbie would surpass them all,” distributor Randee Friedman, who is not related to the singer, told JTA. Over the years, however, a controversy has been simmering among critics who oppose the introduction of Friedman’s folk-style songs into the synagogue service. It’s this little-known story that is at the heart of “Journey of Spirit.” Based on a song by the same name, the film tells how Friedman’s life unfolded as she began composing, teaching and inspiring others to sing her songs. The film largely was self-financed by Ann Coppel, the director, writer and producer. It was six years in the making, but its seeds were planted much longer ago: Coppel and Friedman met in 1971 when Coppel was a camper and Friedman her songleader. When Coppel and other campers returned to their Reform temples, they began demanding the introduction of songs they could sing  Friedman’s songs. In time, the growing popularity of Friedman’s music provoked intense conflict that continues to this day. Supporters of Friedman’s music, with its folk-song feel, reject the grand operatic style used in some Reform temples, with prayers performed in a “high-church” style by cantors accompanied by organs. As Friedman explains, she doesn’t advocate abandoning the nusach  traditional synagogue melodies  but she also wants to reach out to Jews who don’t understand Hebrew and otherwise might not feel any connection to the liturgy. Coppel began the film after attending a screenwriting workshop and visiting Friedman, with whom she has maintained a friendship since their camp days. “Debbie is a hero to so many people, and to me, too,” Coppel told JTA. “In the film, we find a number of people who appreciate her gender-neutral language and making sure that women’s voices are heard.” Some of Friedman’s most popular songs, including “Lechi Lach,” and “Mishaberach,” use parallel male and female terms. Other classic Friedman hits, such as “Not By Might,” carry a message of hope and faith. Though she’s not an ordained cantor, Friedman has inspired a new academic requirement for Reform cantorial students  a course in guitar. She also has been named an honorary member of the Reform movement’s Conference of Cantors. But her focus is on creating community, spirituality and healing: She displays a remarkable ability to bring strangers together, arm in arm, in song. Her humor and evident spirituality allow her to connect easily with audiences at her concerts and participants at her healing services and teaching workshops. Her songs touch people in need of healing. On screen, Friedman talks about a misdiagnosis of a medical condition, and the inappropriate responses that she then took, which affected her mobility. She talks about a young girl, also shown in the film, who suffers from an anxiety disorder and other conditions. “To know that some tormented child finds comfort in my work makes this tormented child,” she says, stopping in mid-sentence. Overcome with emotion, she drops the sentence and begins anew. “It calms me,” she finally says. What she finds most meaningful in her work, Friedman told JTA from her home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, “is that people are able to use my music for their own healing and well being, that they can find comfort in it. “Who could ask for more than that?” Friedman asks. “That’s the ultimate gift.”